If the vocabulary and grammar of our languages shape the way we think (e.g., the presence or absence of verb tenses affecting the way we perceive time), then would inventing a completely logical language require its speakers to become more logical thinkers? James Cooke Brown decided to try it.

Sara Marcus: “I remember putting On the Road down the first time a woman was mentioned. I was just like: ‘Fuck. You.'” Emily Witt: ““I read the [coming-of-age novels] by men instead, until I was like, ‘I cannot read another passage about masturbation. I can’t.’ It was like a pile of Kleenex.”

“When you 3-D-print an object, it’s a fixed, static thing. If you want something more complex, you need to print it as parts and then assemble it. We thought, instead of assembling intelligence into it afterwards, why not print intelligence into it?”

“If we view people as capable of feeling, but not capable of action, we’re still failing to understand them as fully human. Someone who is incapable of thinking for herself, and yet feels very much, is essentially a puppy.”

“If the future of advertising lies in the processing of nonlinguistic traits, then whoever controls the sensory infrastructure for analyzing and monetizing them—the “emotion sharing apparatus,” as Samsung calls it in one its patents —will be the successor to today’s moguls of online advertising.”